After the Move

We are enjoying our new home in Tumwater and are adjusting to everything new. I have been exploring the town to find out where to go to get groceries, jobs, and everything that I need to run the household. It is quite an undertaking and I have had help from Kerry.

I have been decorating the house and finding furniture to fit into the new home. It is an interesting change. I have found my favorite books that have been buried in the garage for over a year while we have been selling our home. I have had to buy some new book shelves and still can't fit all of them in...there is still more to do.

December: A Wedding, A Reception, Christmas, a new baby coming, and then a Move

I don't think I have ever had so much packed into one month. First of all Kristen and Bryce were married on December 12th. Everyone of my children and brothers and sister came along with my Dad, Marva, John, and Marcia. Next, I had to sign papers to sell our home in Vancouver, then I flew to Sacramento to meet with the Phillips. Sandy rented a car and then we went to Vasilia to have the reception there. The week after that was Christmas and we had the exciting news that we were going to have another grandchild. Kerry thinks its a girl and I think it is a boy. This week we moved to Tumwater. I am up to my eyeballs in boxes. There is so much to do and I have a garage full of stuff. We can only get one car in our three stall garage that is how full it is. I love being busy....

Oh, by the way. Jenessa is being transferred back to Rome!

Reception in California and Christmas

In California it was a party every night. The Phillips family were fun to be with and I had a wonderful time meeting with Bryce's Aunt's, Uncles, cousins, and Grandparents.

Kerry and I missed everyone on Christmas day but we celebrated Christmas with our family on December 11th. I loved having all my children and their spouses and my little grandchild Lily at our home. It was the best.

Packing an Enormous Load

Today I packed an enormous amount of stuff into boxes. I wonder what would happen if I took half of it to Deseret Industries without even opening the boxes. Would I miss the stuff that I have? I did not remember that I had even half of the stuff that I have. Wow. I didn't feel bad though because Kerry has 4x more stuff than I do. How do I know this? Well when I packed my office we used about 5 boxes and when I went down to Kerry's office he had 15 boxes packed. When I go into the garage Kerry has 80 percent of the cabinets and I have 20 percent and the stuff in my cabinet belongs to some of my children. Hmmm. Did I marry a packrat? I am sure that if we had a contest to see how much that we each had and piled it up Kerry would have the most presents. Talking about presents we didn't have enough paper to wrap the dishes in so we used Christmas wrapping paper. It will be like I am having Christmas all over again when I unpack the zillion boxes that are leaving this house on Tuesday.

Memory of a Family Reunion in 2004

I was going through some old pictures, getting ready for the wedding when I found this video. Our family sang to my parents this song and then we sang it again at my mother's funeral. It brought good memories back of the reunion that we had. It is one song that helps me to remember my Mother and her testimony of the Savior. I hope that you will take time to listen to us sing. We are not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir but we sing with feeling.

Me and Elevators

I have this thing with elevators. When Dad, Jan, and I were in Anchorage we stayed on the second floor of this hotel. It was the day before we left and I got into the elevator. Suddenly the steel fire doors closed and the alarms went off. I was trapped and could not get out until the elevator went to the first floor. People were being herded out of the building when the elevator doors opened and I went out too. My Dad and Jan were waiting in the parking lot. Then the fire engines came around the corner and the firemen ran into the hotel. Wow. What was happening?

When I found a fireman I asked him where the fire was. He said, "Oh, the elevator motor caught on fire and we have it out and under control." So the elevator was on fire when I was in it?!?

Earlier this year I get in the elevator in the temple to go to the third floor from the basement and the elevator stops. The elevator is broken and I'm in it with Sister Gunn. We had to call for the engineer to get us out of the elevator because we were stuck between floors. The elevator was out of commission for a couple weeks while they repaired it. So I happen to have challenges with elevators.

Kerry told me a joke once about elevators. It goes like this:
"There was a couple who went to New York for the first time. They had never been to a large city so they were really nervous about being there. They had heard a lot about people being mugged and how unsafe big cities were. The large hotel was also a little foreign to them. One night during their stay the husband went down to the lobby and was going to meet his wife for dinner. When she got in the elevator to go down to meet him three big men got in the elevator with her. She was very nervous because they were strange men and she couldn't help but think of all the stories she had heard about getting mugged. She nervously turned around and faced the doors. One of the men said to her, "Hit the floor lady." Quickly she got down on the floor spread eagle just waiting for the mugging to begin. "Lady, I meant hit the button." Later, when they went to the front desk to pay their bill, the men had paid it for her and left her a note. "Lady, that was the best laugh I've had in a long time."

Back Home Again

Kristen is out of town, traveling in California with the Phillips this weekend. She is meeting Bryce's relatives for the first time. I hope she passes their approval. Invitations should be coming in the mail because they were sent out this week. We hope that people will come out for the wedding. Kristen really has gone to a lot of work.

This week I had a melt down. Kerry has been living at this house in Olympia while it has been up for sale and the house was sold this week. He has to go back to living in the hospital now while he is at work. When he told me that I sat a cried and then had an especially frustrating day the next day at work. My emotions got the best of me. UGH!

Today we had four trees planted in our yard, three flowering crabapple and one red bud tree. They will have beautiful pink blooms in the spring. The volunteers who planted them did it in the middle of a rainstorm. The thunder was really loud and Sophie took off running through the house. I have never seen her run so fast. She disappeared for the rest of the day.